Movie reviews

Why????????????

do people write movie reviews that are over 1000 words long.

New Bond film reviewed on BBC has only 289 words plus 8 words in the heading in the mid section.

This type of review would only get useful on this site.

If public body like BBC can post a review by Mr Woss in 289 words why can't people do that same thing here.

Most reviews have useless stuff in them to make the review longer.

I could post this in speakers corner - over 75 words lol

It's becasue they have opinion in them not just stuff copied from the back of the box.

To be honest, the reviews on the BBC are nothing more than a brief guide and in my opinion not very good. If you look at reviews from some of the better film writers such as Roger Ebert, who has won awards for his reviews, you will notice that they may be over 1000 words but are packed with both factual information and opinion on a film, making them far more useful in my opinion.

Why should you not have a review that long?? I dont always thing the long reviews are the best but as long as you have all that needs to be put in a review then who cares. Also this is Dooyoo not the bbc.

Personally I usually find that between about 750 and 1250 is a decent length for a full movie review, longer if its for a DVD with features.
You need to describe the plot, and discuss actors, general opinion, special effects if there are any, the soundtrack if it's noticeable (or particularly unnoticeable) and then a conclusion.
150 words on each of those and you've already nearly got 1000 words. So I don't think that 1000 words for a movie review is too long at all. When they start pushing 2000 or even 3000, then yeah that's excessive.

I don't see any harm in long film reviews, as long as the bulk of the review is actually about the film. If a review was too padded with irrelevant information, then I would rate accordingly. Lisa x

christianfilmcritic wrote:

To be honest, the reviews on the BBC are nothing more than a brief guide and in my opinion not very good. If you look at reviews from some of the better film writers such as Roger Ebert, who has won awards for his reviews, you will notice that they may be over 1000 words but are packed with both factual information and opinion on a film, making them far more useful in my opinion.

Nail on the head sir.

its horses for courses also. Some publications and sites have limited space or wish just to provide an overview or have a prefered style. Reviews sites are dedicated to one thing, reviews, and so have the luxury of being able to post a range of types of review, long, short, factual, chatty, serious, funny. Why people seem to be anti long reviews says more about the protester , i think, than the person who wrote it.

"Methinks the brax protests too much"

Why are they that long? Because you cannot cover everything in less than 750 words in my opinion without actually missing out everything but the basic summary.
There is no way to cover a film properly and give your opinion on it in less than that... no way at all.

Exactly, as long as the high word account isn't due to unnecessary padding. What I mean is a long tale about how you'd lost the film behind the sofa, and it wasn't until you redecorated that you found it. If I need to wade through all of this, then it seems pointless. For me personally I like to read and include myself thoughts on the acting, special effects, story, soundtrack, direction etc, and this is why reviews of this nature tend to be long. If I just read the plot and the fact that you liked it and thought everything was great, then you haven't told me enough to help me make a purchasing decision. Lisa x

I always assume that if a person is bothering to do some research on a film (or any product for that matter) by going to the effort of wading through an on-line review site, then they are looking for something a bit in depth. If they just wanted a brief outline then they would have just looked through a TV guide or a sunday supplement.

Well it's quite hard to do a full, in-depth review in 200 words. If you are writting about extra's that will make it longer. It really depends how in-depth you want your review to be.

But to be honest you can't really take my word for it as i don't do movie reviews.

You do now!

I do now so my advice is valid